Category: Site News

Just an update on where we stand here on FNYTSF: first of all, I wanted to thank the many people who shared my last few articles on Hurricane Sandy. I was not expecting much out of it, because my emotions while writing them bordered on shock. Looking back on it, I’m glad I did write them, not only for my readers around the world who might want to see what has gone on in my neck of the woods, but also for me to save them, so that years from now I will still remember what was going through my mind in the aftermath of this disaster.

It was about time for a style change here on “From New York to San Francisco”, as the previous one was beginning to look cluttered. This new format, I think, is much cleaner looking and better organized, and I personally really like it. Please take note that the pages and categories are now in different locations. The pages are just a little bit lower down from where they used to be, while the actual categories are on the top of the right sidebar. I have also added a new page titled Author Outlook & Blog Info, which details a little bit of my views on blogging and what to expect from this site, as well as introduce the different guest bloggers contributing, and list and describe the different topics and columns that I write about regularly. Edits have also been made to all other pages to tidy them up, and the monthly archives, which are still in the same place, can now be accessed through an easy-to-use drop down menu.

These are going to be busy times for From New York to San Francisco (heck, I’m even thinking about temporarily changing our name to “From Manassas to New Brunswick”) because we are in the midst of both the NHL’s Conference Finals, as well as the production of Copperhead, which we have been ardently following since December. It may seem like an odd mix (throw in some movie reviews and political commentary, and it gets even stranger), but as I have said many times, that was not by design when this blog was created—it just sort of happened. Anyway, given the plethora of different topics being blogged about here, I just wanted to remind everyone of the different ways to stay connected.

As my Eastern Orthodox friend would always say on Easter, “Hristos Voskrese!”, which means “Christ Has Risen!”, the most important phrase on the most important day of the Christian calendar. On this Easter Sunday, I would like to extend my best wishes to all of you, as well as to our readers who are in the midst of Passover. Normally, I would devote this time of the year on this blog to discussing some religious movie, perhaps posting a review of one as I usually do, but instead, today I just want to mention one particular scene of a certain film that generally draws laughs. The only problem is, the movie is The Greatest Story Ever Told, and the scene in question is the climactic crucifixion near the end of the film.

Just a quick call for help from any of my readers in the Los Angeles area: friend and TV show host, Bobby Bognar, who I have interviewed on this blog for his work on Food Tech, needs some help in identifying the man in this picture, who got into a car accident (on the corner of La Brea and Fountain) this morning with his wife, while their child was also in the car. After this photo of the damage was taken, he fled the scene. If anyone has any information, please leave it in the comment section below, or feel free to email me, and I will forward it to Bobby. I will leave this picture up until he is captured. We are just glad that everyone is ok!

Hope everyone is having a great day—the weekend is almost here! Just a quick little post to update you all on what has been going on, here on From New York to San Francisco:

In the past few days, we reached a couple of milestones. On Monday, we eclipsed 250,000 views, this being done in a little bit less than two years, as that anniversary will be coming up this March 13. We have seen an increase in numbers with each passing month and year, so it seems, and are now averaging more than 600 visitors a day, which is the highest daily average since what was experienced in May of last year, during the height of my Gods and Generals coverage. The total views from 2011 were 167,467, and in these first two months of 2012, monthly averages have been close to 14,000. There really is no explanation for this sudden spike (the last 10 days have all had more than 700 views each) because my blog posts have been back to wide-ranging instead of something specific—you know, hockey one day, history the next. Nevertheless, we will definitely take it! Also, my most recent article, posted earlier today on horoscopes, was our 600th post.

Even though this has been mentioned before, I just wanted to formally invite you to follow this blog on both Facebook and Twitter, so you will never miss a posting. I would like to get the Facebook following to 100 “likes” by the summer, and we are currently at 52. Thanks in advance!

As for what direction this blog will take in the immediate future, that will all depend on the progress of the To Appomattox and Copperhead productions, as you know, we are just chomping at the bit for those, to bring you the latest information and coverage. But, until then, I guess we will just have to roll with the tide and see so many different topics intermixed with each other.

To all my readers, who I am very thankful for, I would like to wish you the happiest of Thanksgivings! This has been a heck of a year, and I’m sure all of us can appreciate finally having a day off to spend relaxing [and eating] with friends and family. Let’s hope for no family arguments or oven catastrophes this year, eh? As always, I would also like to share this link with you, which is an excerpt from a book written by American Indian activist Russell Means, called Where White Men Fear to Tread, which tells a Thanksgiving story that you may have never heard before. I am not going to villainize the pilgrims now as I have in years past, but I just want to show that there are two sides to every story.

In case you had not already heard, a fellow reader, reenactor, and friend, Steven Hancock, and myself will be running a fan blog devoted to the upcoming mini-series To Appomattox. I was going to devote a lot of coverage to it here on my site, and Steve on his, so we figured it would be best to pool our resources and lock arms, to work together on this website. We have the full blessing of the show’s executive producer Michael Beckner, though we are not technically an “official” site. This will not diminish my writing on this blog; I will just be putting everything about the series at a different location.

With coverage of Gods and Generals beginning to wind down, though I still hope to land more interviews, I have decided to condense every single opinion essay, editorial, news article, cast/crew member interview, and “Blogging Manassas” Journal, all onto one page to make for easier viewing. If you look at the top of this blog, you will see the Archive tab, along with my other pages for my personal information, list of interviews, and lecture appearances. I hope you all have enjoyed this coverage, and please browse through the list to see if you missed something!

Well folks, the moment you have all asked me about has finally arrived—I am going to be getting an interview with the director of Gettysburg and Gods and Generals, Ron Maxwell. I cannot tell you how many times after each interview with a cast member that people have asked me when I am interviewing Ron. My six month search has finally ended, and I am in contact with him via email. I have sent him my questions and will wait for his response.

This seems to be the culmination of the Gods and Generals coverage I have been writing about since November, and I cannot tell you how fun it was. The writing will not stop with this interview, but I feel that everything I have been pursuing in regards to these two movies is now complete. Please keep checking back for when it will be posted, because I do not have a timetable, and told him not to rush. You can visit his official website by clicking here.